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First day of summer break. Awesome and awful all at once. I woke up Monday to a child screaming, “Mom! Mom! Mom! Mama!” I jumped out of bed worried about what the screaming was, only to find that the boys were watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Augustus Gloop’s chunky butt was screaming for his mommy from the tube. I crawled back into bed for a minute.

Once I gained my bearings I climbed into my running shoes and poured a cup of coffee to chug before my summertime baby-sitter arrived. I hired someone (actually a teenager I used to babysit when I was a teenager) to sit with the kids in the morning Monday through Friday so I can continue on with my runs while the boys are on break. She pulled into the drive way and I took off.

I got a great run in, although I’m still not in what I consider “shape”, I was able to run two, under 9 minute miles so I was good with that. I relieved the sitter and hopped in the shower. Afterwards I worked on garage organization while the kids played in the yard, searching for worms so we could go fishing. We were starved by 11:30 and the boys have established an obsession with Subway so we loaded into the car, had sandwiches (veggie for me – have I mentioned that I’ve lost 6 pounds since the beginning of May?) and then stopped at a convenience store to pick up bait (you can buy bait, beer, chips, dip and lottery tickets all at the same venue in Ohio).

We pulled into the park and unloaded our fishing gear. Josh’s dad bought the boys fishing poles and all that goes with it so I fumbled for a few minutes trying to figure out how to pull the line through the rod, hook the bobber and attach the hook. I managed though and within little time the boys were looking at me like I was the definition of badass 🙂

We fished for about an hour, maybe a little more, and I was impressed with how quickly the boys caught on. Theo could cast like a master fisherman and Parker caught three fish! I was also a little surprised with how unafraid Theo was. He’s usually very squeamish about all things but when it comes to animals something is just different. He caught one fish, grabbed it and began to release the hook when Ruby tripped over his line causing the hook to dig into his finger. He freaked out for a minute but it wasn’t that bad so he shook it off like a champ. In the meantime, every fish Parker caught waged a war between he and I. I’ve declared this summer as the season of learning and I’m digging my heels in when it comes to making sure the boys do the things they can do, on their own. I read an Ann Landers quote recently that basically sums up my personal parenting philosophy and I’ve taken it to heart.

“It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.”

Anyway, I told the boys from the get go that I would help them bait their hook and cast a couple of times but that was it. If they wanted to fish, they had to fish. Parker was totally creeped out by the wriggling fish every time he reeled one in so we spent about four minutes per fish (the first two at least) arguing about whether he should pull the hook from the fish’s mouth or whether I should. And then the third fish happened. I watched him literally, mistakenly, cast his rod into the first dip of water and within two seconds a fish had caught. Excitedly, he reeled it in only to find that the fish had swallowed the hook. As soon as I saw it several choice words flew through my brain.

Park worked on getting that hook out for about three minutes before I finally said, “Okay, we’ve got to get this fish back into the water or it’s going to die.” I threw the fish back in still attached to the hook. Parker flipped. He was going to de-hook this fish and save its life. He told me to reel it in again because he was going to get the hook out. He asked that I gently step on the fish so he could get a better grip and then he proceeded to try every angle while tearing up and bickering back and forth with me for twenty. minutes. Twenty minutes. It was so pitiful and though I was annoyed with his squeamishness, I felt so bad for the little guy by the end of it. Eventually I told him it was a lost cause. The fish was dead. We had to cut the line and just throw him back. All three kids broke down crying and we all hugged in the 85 degree weather by the pond in the park.

We called it a day and discussed whether we’d ever go fishing again. Theo said absolutely not because he “can’t handle when things die. Except for germs.” Parker said yes because he had had a blast until the third fish fiasco but next time he’ll bring gloves to better handle the fish. We headed off to the library to return some books and check out new.

When we got home I realized that I had left the garage door open. Now, our garage is not for our car. It’s at a really terrible angle in our driveway and I’m actually not even sure that our van would fit even if we could make the required turn. If I had my way, I’d tear the damn thing down. On top of our inability to use the garage for what a garage should be used for, we need a new door. The one we have is ragged, ugly and off the tracks.

As I pulled the door down, the stupid thing got stuck. With my handbag and library books in my right hand, I used my left hand to partially re open the garage door so I could pull it closed, but as the door dropped, my left hand caught inside of one of the sections and began to smash as the door continued to lower.

Though I didn’t make any noise, all I could think was, “Holy shit, my fingers are being cut off and I’m here by myself with my three kids who will just be completely traumatized.” Parker thought it too because he screamed and said, “Mom! Are your fingers there? Are you fingers there?” I dropped everything I was holding in my right hand and slowly began lifting the door. As the door lifted, it got tighter and I grew even more scared thinking there was no way out. Luckily, after a certain point I realized that I could manually separate the sections of the garage door that my hand was stuck between and managed to escape with a minor gash and three bruised knuckles. It actually didn’t even hurt that badly but it was scary as shit. I held it together until I was in the house and then 5 minutes later, when the kids were distracted, I called Josh and broke down crying.

The rest of the night was filled with vodka and lemonade (duh), eating dinner outside and Face Timing my aunt, sister and husband. After the kids were in bed I vegged on the couch while drowning my sorrows in Housewives and London Ladies. Day 1 is in the books.

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I’m kind of over blogging. Over as in, I don’t ever feel like taking the time to write things down anymore. Over as in, I never want to upload/edit/share pictures from my camera anymore. My hobby of blogging has been evolving since the day I started my first blog back in 2010 and I assume it will continue to evolve until it eventually fizzles out. Then I read back on something I wrote 4 years ago and I’m so thankful that I took the time to blog because I love the little glimpse into the time capsule that I created. Our lives are so different now than they were just 4 years ago. I’m ridiculously nostalgic so even though my life today is exactly (almost) where the me from 2010 would have hoped it to be, I can’t deny that it makes me sad to look back and remember where I was then.

I think I’ll probably get back to blogging a little bit more since it’s officially summertime in the Kistler house but since I can’t promise anything I thought I’d write a little random update post to share with everyone (especially the future me) what is going on in our family and my mind lately.

Living separately from the love of my life absolutely sucks. Today marks two months since we started this geobacheloring journey and while these two months have flown by, we still have 16 to go. As to be expected, we’ve already had some issues but we knew this wouldn’t be easy when we signed up for it. For me, aside from just really, really missing my best friend, the hardest part is keeping the feeling of resentment at bay. Some nights, when the kids have been particularly difficult or the work on the house is wearing on me and Josh calls to tell me he’s out at a bar in Manhattan with the guys from work, I feel it creeping in. I feel like he’s such an ass to be out on a Wednesday night partying like he’s one of the guys (everyone he works with is single) and I really, really want to be mad at him. But I know that he isn’t really partying like one of the guys and that this isn’t something he would be doing if we were there with him. I don’t expect him to sit in his apartment and twiddle his thumbs because I’m back at home tucking our kids in bed. Sometimes I just have to remind myself that he’s not choosing his friends or the bar over us – we’re just not there for him to choose. The kids are handling it well though. I was afraid they’d live their lives Sunday to Friday just waiting for dad to come home but just like they always do, they’ve surprised me with their resiliency. We FaceTime every morning and every night and have only gone 5 days max without being able to squeeze Josh so it’s not too bad. Ruby has become obsessed with New York. Any time she sees anything that resembles a city she says, “Look! It’s New York!” because she knows that’s where daddy is.

Moving back home has been pretty much completely opposite to what I thought it would be like. It’s not a bad or a good thing, it’s just different than what I imagined. I love our little house but it doesn’t feel like “home”. As a matter of fact, while we are very happy that we made this decision and we’re very happy to be back in our hometown for right now, I don’t think that any of us feel this is long term. For the first month, while the New York funk wore off, Parker made comments every other day about how badly he wanted to grow up here. I felt it too. I was actually disappointed that we didn’t buy a bigger house because this house is just too small for us to grow into if this is going to be our forever town, but slowly that feeling started to fade for all of us and now I wonder if we’re just addicted to the nomad lifestyle. A few weeks ago, Parker and I were talking about our life here and I asked him if he was happy that we moved back. He said, “Yeah I like it here and I want to stay for a little while but I think I’d be okay to move again.” Hearing him say those words felt a little like gaining permission for something. It felt like a relief of some kind.

As for the house, Josh and I have been busting our butts and have the downstairs 99% of the way completed. We’ve changed nearly everything. The color of the walls, the light fixtures in every room, we’ve painted the fireplace, stained the mantle, installed a door bell, installed central air, changed the entire kitchen, upgraded the blinds in the windows and on and on and on. We’re currently working on fencing in our back yard and we’re creeping upstairs as we continue on with sanding the floors, painting the hallway walls and changing out the upstairs hallway light. I’d say overall, we’re at about 70% complete with everything I envisioned on the first day we walked through the house. The speed at which we’re working is insane – basically projects haven’t stopped for 2 months – but it’s just one of those by – products of being a military family. You only have so much time in this space so do what you need to do before you have to move on. That’s the way my brain is wired now. That feeling is draining at first but now that we’ve accomplished so much I’m actually starting to feel elated. I nearly have the house I’ve been picturing since February which is allowing a little bit of contentment to trickle down. I don’t think I’ve felt content since 2011 so this is nice. With that said, I am very bipolar when it comes to this house and some hours days I feel like we’re pouring sweat and money into a pit. Hopefully not.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about summertime in my life. The dog days of the two summers past have given me a huge appreciation for Ohio summers. I plan to move at an extremely slow and laid back pace, earn the nick name of pool rat, play outside in our pajamas at 8 am, eat most of our meals on our new picnic table, run and bike hundreds of miles and eat more fair food than I’d ever admit to. The boys are signed up for basketball, soccer, and art camp, we have two vacations planned and a visit from my sister and new baby nephew in early August. I know I’m going to blink and it will all be over with but like I told the boys this morning, the second half of the year in Ohio is just short of magical. Fireflies, football, holidays and family is all that’s left of 2014.

Nearly a month has gone by since we moved into our little brick cottage and within this short time I’ve had a lot of different thoughts and feelings about this house as a home. From the very beginning Josh and I looked at this building as a temporary stop. I mean, surely we didn’t think that we’ll actually be able to raise three children all the way from elementary through high school in 1200 square feet with one bathroom. The very reason we chose such a small home was for the potential to easily rent it out once we’re ready to move on. We figured that a small 3/1 home would appeal to a broader range of renters (singles, couples, couples + 1 or 2 children, elderly, etc) than a larger home would. I was so eager to not see this as our forever home that I even asked our realtor how much she thought we could list it for on the first day we walked through.

But a funny thing has started happening as we fix up this little place and make it our (even if it is temporary) home. I’ve started to love it here. When I look around, even though there are some things that I wish were different, I see so many more things that I’ve always wanted in my forever home. It’s got me thinking that maybe we could stay here for the long haul…

For One – Living in a small house means living with small expenses. Honestly, we live in this house for less than $750 a month, utilities included. To me, this means that we are free to do whatever we want. I’m no longer worried about Josh finding a livable job after the Coast Guard because livable here is pretty easy. It means that we can travel more. Save more. Put more money towards making what little bit of square footage we do have, exactly how we want it. It gives me a feeling of freedom, really.

Two – There’s less to clean. The house we rented in Texas was 2400 square feet and I hated every single inch of it once it came time to clean. Actually, that was all the time because I could barely keep up. A living room, 2 dining rooms, a kitchen, 4 bedrooms, a loft, 2.5 bathrooms, an entry way, and giant hallways was just too much. We didn’t use half of it but all of it needed dusted. I relish the fact that this house is less than half of that Texas house because it means I spend less than half of the time cleaning it.

Three – There’s less to decorate. Don’t get me wrong, I love decorating but it’s nice to feel like I have everything I need. We actually even had to purge some things in order to fit into this house but less things, is always good.

Four – We’re around each other more. I know this may actually become an issue for privacy’s sake as the kids get older (although, “sure you can have your girlfriend over and we’ll all sit right here and hang out together in the only living room we have” sounds nice too) but right now it’s perfect. I’ve noticed that we all watch much less television because we only have one living space that we must share. Also, for me personally, I feel like I’m more attentive to each kid. Not to say I wasn’t before but with only 1200 square feet to move about, I always know exactly where and what everyone is doing/discussing. It’s nice.

I think it’s common to think that you need more than what you actually do. Really, I think it’s common to think that you want more than you actually do so I’m happy to say that for now, I feel content. 🙂

PS – WordPress has apparently changed its photo options so I no longer know how to decrease the size of photos. Sorry if you have to scroll just to view a full picture!

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iy iy iy (I hope that’s how you write it out)! I have honestly never been so busy in my life. Between the move and the house and adjusting to being a part time single mommy, catching up with old friends and family, throwing a birthday party for Theo and celebrating Easter, I feel like I haven’t had a second to even breathe.

I’m breathing now. A little bit. Very quickly.

There’s so much that I want to write about and I barely know where to start but of course, I have to start with the house! Homeownership feels a lot like adding a new baby to the family. In the past three weeks I’ve felt excited, overwhelmed, in love, ill equipped, inadequate, overjoyed and have asked myself what have we done, more than once 😉

We are not completely unpacked, which is pretty uncharacteristic of me, but we have done so much to change this little fixer upper for the better already. I feel like we’ve renovated the kitchen but Josh said that word was a little extreme. Either way, within the first week we painted, updated the light fixtures, upgraded and replaced the appliances, changed all of the hardware, removed all of the upper cabinets and replaced them with open shelves and a wine rack (essential), updated and switched out all of electrical outlets, SCRUBBED the filthy mess (this house turned out to be Christina Aguilera Dirty) and added bamboo shades. Basically the only thing we didn’t do were the floors and the countertops. Overall, I love it and I’m so proud of Josh for how much work he has done already. I helped of course, but Josh has really taken charge and has constantly reminded me that we can do almost everything ourselves.

One thing I’ve already learned from owning a home is that just because we own it, doesn’t mean everything will work out the way I we had imagined it would. I guess I’ve always thought that I’d love our house so much more if I could do anything I want to it but the truth is there are limitations on what you can do with a space whether it’s a rental or not. There have been a few surprises, both positive and negative, but luckily the good and bad have balanced each other out pretty well (so far).

Remember when we first looked at the house and I complained about the terrible, painted tile that turned out being molded plaster? Well we painted it a high gloss white and I absolutely love it. It looks like pretty square tiles but still has the charm since it’s really plaster. It also looks fantastic because it’s only half of the wall and contrasts the sea foam sort of green that we painted the top half of the wall. On the other hand, I hate the stove we bought. It’s cute (stainless steel flattop) but it sucks at actually cooking. Ha! Form over function, right? But the refrigerator is fabulous (I bought the same one we had in Texas so I knew what we were getting), the ceiling fan is fabulous, the hardware is fabulous (and from Ikea!) and I still love the bamboo floors. Three weeks in and the kitchen is about 90% done already. We have one beam over the sink that needs to be painted and we plan to replace the countertops eventually but everything else is done.

As for the rest of the house –

we’ve painted the dining room and hall way between the master bedroom and bathroom.

we’ve changed the light fixture in the dining area to the lantern that may be the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.

we’ve ORBed (oil rubbed bronze spray painted) half of the heating vents throughout the house. They used to be an ugly gold so rather than buy new covers, we just bought a $12 can of spray paint and made them look new.

we’ve updated half of the electrical outlets throughout the house.

we’ve updated the dining light switch to a fancy new dimmer switch.

we’ve ripped up every single inch of carpeting within these small 1200 square feet.

And all in less than 3 weeks time.

Getting real with how I feel – it’s very strange. This house is exactly what I wanted. An easy, small fixer upper that mostly just needs cosmetic repairs. I want to do it myself, I want to learn as I go, I like the projects and I want this house to be a good investment. But something about this process just isn’t as rewarding as I had imagined. Basically it’s just this feeling of inadequacy. I see in my mind exactly what I want, we make it happen and then it’s not as good/nice/pretty as I had thought it would be. I’m not kidding myself – it’s not the house, it’s me – it’s my touch of OCD, perfectionism and insecurities. Either way, it’s a buzz kill.

I’m hoping that as we continue to make progress I’ll continue to fall in love with the house and it will start to feel more and more like our home. Since we have so many plans for this little cottage, I’m making a weekly list broken down into daily tasks (can you say Type A?) to help me visualize just how much we’re actually accomplishing in this big sea of projects.

I’m excited to share everything as we keep chugging along as well as give an update on what it’s like to live separately from my husband for half of the week and an update on what it has been like moving back to our hometown after 7 years away. A lot of fun has also been being had and I’d love to document some of that so hopefully I find the time to pop in more often!

We’ll see…

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I think one of the sweetest parts of being in a family are all of the little things that belong only to you. You know, the things that you remember when you grow up, being specific to your mom or dad. For some reason when I was little I always used to pick up on the things other families said and did and some of them stuck with me. For example, the mother of the family I babysat for all throughout jr high and high school always told her girls, “I love you so” and it just melted me. Adding one little word to the end of a phrase that everyone uses made it seem so much more personal and powerful. I still follow along with her and her girls on Facebook and every once in while I’ll smile when that little sentence pops up on my screen. And I won’t lie. I have been telling my kids that I love them so for 8 years now 🙂

Ice cream dreams are a thing I’ve passed on from my childhood. I used to have nightmares a lot when I was little so when I’d wake up in the middle of the night, scared and crying, my mom would come into my room and list off all of the good things I should think about to help me get back to sleep. She would say, “Just think of good things like ice cream cones and you won’t be afraid anymore.” Our kids don’t often have nightmares but every night as I leave their room I always say, “Have sweet ice cream dreams.” I realized that this was definitely one of our things one night when I didn’t say it and Theo got out of bed to remind me that I forgot to wish them the ice cream dreams. Isn’t it incredible how strong the connection you can make by doing something so small?

It’s not just words, things can be anything really. When Josh and I were in high school, before we were comfortable saying I love you, we would do this hand thing where one of us squeezed the other’s hand 3 times. A sort of morse code I guess. Even after we said the words to each other we continued to do the hand thing anytime we were in a group setting and didn’t want to say it out loud. Cheesy, yes, but sometimes that’s what makes the best kind of thing. Of course we don’t do it much now but every once in a while those three squeezes still mean something. I’ve also let the boys in on the secret code although I don’t get many opportunities to use it with them anymore.

Josh and I also call each other buddy. I don’t remember where it came from but for as long as I can remember it’s been our term of endearment for each other. He’s even listed under “Buddy” in my phone. We’re not big into lovey names. Sweetheart is my way of saying asshole, honey was my dog’s name and I’ve never once called a grown person babe so I guess buddy was created out of necessity 🙂 Regardless, I love it because it’s so personal.

All of these things, whether stolen from someone else, passed on or created by us, make up a kind of club. They’re part of our binding. A legacy specific to the 5 of us. That’s why it’s so important to me.

Family can be so tricky but has been especially for us, because of circumstances and our lifestyle. For us, things haven’t had the chance to occur naturally outside of our circle of 5 because we’ve never been consistently surrounded by our loved ones. It has been easy for relationships to stunt when they should have been growing. When I was little my grandma lived 10 minutes from me which meant we were given the chance for things all of the time but mostly because she never missed an opportunity to make memories with us. Our thing was taking drives on roller coaster road every Friday night. I think of her every time an unexpected hill “gets my belly” and when our kids, whom have spent the majority of their lives in flat NJ and TX, cackle with laughter over “the roller coaster road” (what they’ve designated the hills of Ohio without any help from me). While it makes me sad that our kids have missed out on creating those things with other loved ones, I am more sad for the other loved ones who have missed the opportunity to create those legacies for themselves. But hopefully moving home will open up more chances for growth and things 🙂

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I can’t sit still. I am so beyond excited about getting through this weekend and getting into our house on Tuesday! In case you were wondering, since I haven’t given an official house update since I expressed my concerns with the appraisal, we’re legitimate homeowners now! The appraisal went through without a hitch and we actually closed a week ahead of schedule! We went back to Ohio last week and closed on the house but since we closed early, the previous owners were not prepared to leave until March 31. Of course this was fine with us because we’re reasonable people.

If you remember, we had planned to have Josh go back before us so he could refinish the hardwood floors, but I can’t wait. I want to move! We’re all going back together, getting the boys enrolled in school and then playing by ear while Josh finishes the floors. We’ve decided that we want the original natural wood floors so since he won’t be staining them, it should only take 3 days. We’ll try to live upstairs (all of our downstairs furniture will be stored in the garage in the meantime) until it’s no longer possible and then the kids and I will just go to a hotel. We should be good to go by next Friday/Saturday.

I have ten million thoughts going through my mind and keep thinking of all of the ways I’ll be able to start working while Josh does the floors. We’re not doing the upstairs yet (it’s carpeted but we plan to do hardwoods eventually) so I can work on the kids’ bedrooms, and the kitchen floors are brand new bamboo so we won’t be touching those either meaning I can probably get a little done in that room as well. Speaking of the kitchen, remember how I told you about the painted tile that goes halfway up the wall? Well we found out the story behind those. It’s actually molded plaster, a common feature during the 1920’s which is when our house was built. We laughed when we learned that’s what it is because we had watched an episode of Rehab Addict (obsessed) where she explained molded plaster and Josh had said, “Oh, maybe that’s what the tile is.” It is.

So what do we plan to do with the molded plaster? Personally, I love original detail so I don’t want to cover it up. We considered putting up board and batten or beadboard but I can’t hide something that’s so unique! I’m going to continue on with my plan to paint it white but I’m going with a high gloss paint to try and make it look a little like tile.

Apparently we bought the house from the world’s nicest people because the day after we closed, they offered to walk us through the house and give us the low down. Isn’t that super sweet? That’s how we learned about the kitchen walls and also how we learned that the quirky door that leads to the roof of our garage (the issue we were concerned with for the appraisal) was also a 1920’s feature. I guess it was common back then to create a sort of “deck” over your garage and while there isn’t railing on the roof anymore, there used to be. It was so cool to hear the previous owner tell her childhood stories of performing shows on the deck for the neighborhood kids below.

Oh yeah, that’s something else I forgot to mention. The previous owner was the only owner ever. Her dad built the house with his bare hands. She grew up in the house and then had it passed on to her when her father died. Something about that just makes me feel like we have an extra responsibility taking on this home. I have so much respect for history, family heirlooms and the passing of the torch, so to speak.

Here’s our little house 🙂

First thing’s first. I’m ripping down the awning immediately and replacing that tiny little light with a big, beautiful, black lantern. Won’t that little step modernize the house so much? I’m debating on taking down the railing too but Josh seems to think it’s a necessity for code purposes as well as insurance reasons. “What if the mailman slips and sues us for not having a railing?!” If I don’t take it off for good I’m at least going to spray it black.

The bane of my existence, at least when it comes to this house, is the outdoor space. Josh thinks we can make it something but I can’t see it. Perhaps it’s because I am not a landscaper/gardener whatsoever, but either way I’m hoping to come up with something for in front of those three windows. I also hate that the house sits on a hill but I’ve been told it would cost thousands to remedy that and it’s just not something I want to spend that kind of money on right now.

You can’t see from this picture but the front door is absolutely beautiful. It is a rounded solid wood door that I won’t do anything more to other than clean and treat. I googled similar doors and found that it’s probably worth upwards of a thousand dollars +. I’ve always wanted one of those bright red or teal or yellow front doors but this beauty does the trick too.

From the front view of the house you can see where the roof pitches. That is the front facing wall in both the boys’ room and Ruby’s room, which creates a really dramatic shape to the bedrooms. Of course it creates challenges for furniture arrangement but like I’ve said, I love character and this definitely adds to it. Also, if you notice the sort of triangle on the left side of the chimney – that’s the attic and while it’s unfinished, it is insulated. There is a small door that leads to it from the boys’ room so we’re excited for the potential of finishing that big space. We’re hoping to (phase two 🙂 ) blow out the majority but keep a small portion of the wall to create a sense of division for either each boy to have their own space or a bedroom/hangout space.

Kind of like one of these,

Oh, also, we bought the first upgrade for the house today. This light fixture from World Market.

I have been in love with the Ballard Designs pendant lanterns since I got the chance to take a tour of the Ballard Designs Bosch house* in Serenbe, right outside of Atlanta (Josh’s aunt lived in Serenbe and it is truly one of my favorite places in the United States). The Bosch house featured the Eldridge Rectangular Chandelier and sparked my dreams of one day having that light hang over my dining table. It doesn’t get any more beautiful but with a price tag of $500!!!!! I couldn’t convince Josh that it was okay for a light fixture to equal one month’s mortgage payment (seriously). I thought it was a lost cause as I had never seen anything remotely as lovely at any other shop but today my lucky stars aligned and YHL did a feature on upgrading their hallway lights with Ballard knockoffs from World Market. My fingers sprinted to World Market’s website and after texting Josh to get the go ahead (he knows that I’m going full speed ahead with this house so he’s asked that I consult him before I make any purchases 😉 ), I bought this lantern. It felt really exciting, not only to make a purchase for the house, but also to have it shipped to our new address. Truly exciting.

*I Googled the Bosch house and randomly came across this blog. I may, or may not be the person in the 5th photograph down. Ha!

I could keep going. And going. And going. But I’ll stop for now since I think 1300 words is plenty for one blog post. Obviously I’ll have much more about the house to come but the next time I pop in I’ll probably be doing a recap of our trip to Cape May. That’s right. Last stop before we move back to our hometown is the only other home we’ve ever had. 🙂 Have a great weekend!

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It’s 20 something degrees and will be April next week. Yuck. I guess maybe since I’ve been a little bit removed from real winter weather for so long (last year we were in Houston and the 4 years before that were in Cape May which generally has mild, albeit windy, winters) I forgot how cold and looooong they can be. On the upside, it’s supposed to be in the 60’s in both New York and Ohio next week.

I hate daffodils. They’re filling up my Instagram feed lately and I can’t help but wish for tulips or hyacinths instead.

March is insane with birthdays! We have 7 birthdays this month including Theo’s and Ruby’s. I mentioned this to Josh and he said, well what’s 9 months before March? The 4th of July! 😉

Our family is passing around a tiny stomach bug (early spring is always when we get sick). It’s not anything that knocks you out but it’s actually kind of worse because it comes and goes randomly. Ruby and Josh are recovered but now it’s my turn and it sucks. At least it’s this week and not next. Exactly 7 days until our moving truck arrives!

We’ve moved so many times now that it no longer bothers me at all. I actually like taking inventory on all of our belongings, purging things we don’t use/need and starting fresh somewhere. Obviously this move is especially exciting since we’re officially homeowners.

Actually, buying a house is one of the most exciting things I’ve ever experienced. Josh and I have so many plans and ideas for this little house and I can’t wait to get started. This is my thing. For about 6 years now I’ve been really interested in real estate, renovations and home decorating. I even took a real estate appraisal course a couple of years ago, just for fun. Eventually when my career in mommyhood becomes just a part time gig I plan to start something in this field.

Springtime is the beginning of a new running season and I can’t wait to get back into it. Last spring I trained for a half marathon but have only run a handful of times since. I’m planning on a full comeback. Actually, I need a jogging stroller to accommodate Miss Ruby and I’m leaning towards a BOB Revolution. One thing I really want are iPod speakers on the inside so Ruby can listen to music while we run but I’m not sure if BOB’s have that feature. I’d love any suggestions or recommendations.